The LoHud Yankees Blog

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SNY was nice enough to ask me to pop on their Wheelhouse show yesterday. Here’s the clip.

After negotiations that rivaled the Paris Peace Talks, Andy Pettitte signed with the Yankees.

Brian Cashman again talked about a book he hasn’t read. This notebook also has info on how Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera are doing with their rehabs.

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Yesterdays conference call was interesting. Cashman set the indoor world record for most words said without a pause. Meanwhile assorted TV types jumped on the call (which they almost never do) to ask Cashman grave questions about The Yankee Years.

By the time the final inquisitor had asked the same question the others had, media relations director Jason Zillo cut him off and the call mercifully ended.

We also had the requisite question about whether Joba should pitch in the bullpen. I’m fairly sure if Joba went 22-2 and won the Cy Young Award, the first question he would get is whether he should pitch in the bullpen.

“You know, Claude Monet, that’s a nice painting. But think about how well you’d paint a house. Go slap some primer on the Arc de Triomphe, see how you do.”

I just don’t get it. I never will.

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up is Chris from Pinstripes Published.

Chris is from Evansvillem Ind. He is in high school and plans to major in mechanical engineering next year at the University of Evansville. He started his blog in July of 2008 and his favorite player is Derek Jeter.

Heres his post:

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The year is 2004 and the Yankees have just announced a trade that will bring Alex Rodriguez to the Bronx. Rodriguez, arguably the best player in baseball at the time, is a huge addition for the Yankees. Later in the year, the Yankees sign free agent pitcher Carl Pavano, who just came off of a huge season for the Florida Marlins, to a lucrative four-year contract, which seemed to be a bit of a stretch due to Pavano’s injury history.

Now let’s get back to the present. Rodriguez, although good, has not lived up to the expectations and is jeered by a large majority of fans while Pavano is public enemy No. 1 due to the fact that he played only a few games in pinstripes.

Following the 2008 season, a disappointing one for the Yankees, the team went out and acquired two more big-name players in CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. Much like Rodriguez, Sabathia is arguably the best pitcher in all of baseball and, like Pavano, Burnett just came off of a great year. Also, each of these additions was expected to bring another World Series championship back to the Yankees.

However, both Sabathia and Burnett share many negative aspects of their 2004 counterparts. Sabathia, like Rodriguez, has yet to play in a media-crazy city such as New York. Also, both Sabathia and Rodriguez have the highest contracts in baseball at pitcher and position player (respectively) in history. Next, both Burnett and Pavano have a long history of injuries, yet came off of healthy seasons. Also like Pavano, Burnett just received a deal that seemed to be too long after looking at his history of injury.

Yes, yes, Sabathia is not a position player like Rodriguez and, of course, Burnett has claimed that he has learned how to avoid injury, but my point still stands. What if Sabathia, like Rodriguez, ends up crumbling under the media’s pressure in New York and Burnett, like Pavano, becomes one of the most hated players in Yankees’ history? Such tragic events would, of course, deeply upset fans and could shift the Yankees’ focus from buying up all of the free agents to taking the time to develop their own talent.

With Sabathia and Burnett now Yankees, all fans can do is hope that the two will continue to play like they did for their previous homes, otherwise we are in for yet another long season.

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Thanks, Chris. Coming tomorrow: Jason from Heartland Pinstripes.

Andy Pettitte’s deal (via the AP):

Base salary: $5.5 million.

Innings bonuses: $500,000 each for 150, 160 and 170 innings pitched and $750,000 each for 180, 190, 200 and 210 innings.

Roster bonuses: $100,000 for 120 days on the active 25-man roster, $200,000 for 130 days, $250,000 each for 140 and 150 days, and $400,000 each for 160, 170 and 180 days.

So if Pettitte throws 180 innings and stays on the roster all season, he’ll make $9.75 million. That seems pretty reasonable.

The upside of this tremendous for the Yankees. It’s reasonable to expect that their rotation as it stands can give them 925+ innings. This allows them to skip Joba Chamberlain if they want, give CC Sabathia or A.J. Burnett an extra day if they need it, etc.

Here’s the conference call audio from Andy Pettitte:

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and Brian Cashman:

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Andy was with his agent, Randy Hendricks. Cashman then got on and gave a series of extensive answers to questions about the book and Pettitte. Basically, it was a negotiation. They wanted more, the Yankees wanted to pay less. In the end, they made a deal.

Other news: Jorge Posada was in New York today to get his his shoulder checked. He did his throwing program at the Stadium and Cashman said he is progressing well. Mariano Rivera has not yet started his throwing program and will be brought along slowly in spring training. Hideki Matsui will be a rehab player as well. Cashman said he isn’t concerned with Godzilla.

Conference call in a few minutes. I’ll post some audio as soon as I can.

It’s a $5.5 million deal that could balloon to as much as $12 million based on innings pitched and roster time. As I’ve written here for weeks, it makes complete sense and creates great flexibility in the rotation.

The rotation as it stands now:

Sabathia
Burnett
Wang
Chamberlain
Pettitte

with Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves and Coke waiting to fill in as needed. The Yankees now have comparable depth with the Rays and Red Sox, which is vital.

UPDATE, 4:21 p.m: The release from the Yankees:

The New York Yankees announced today they have signed left-handed pitcher Andy Pettitte to a one-year contract.

Pettitte, 36, was 14-14 with a 4.54 ERA in 33 starts with the Yankees in 2008 (204.0IP, 233H, 112R, 103ER, 55BB, 158K, 19HR), while holding left-handed hitters to a .203 batting average (47-for-231, 3HR). He was 10-7 with a 4.03 ERA prior to the All-Star break, marking his most such wins since 2003 (11).

Originally selected by the Yankees in the 22nd round of the 1990 First-Year Player Draft, Pettitte is 178-101 with a 4.01 ERA in 11 overall seasons with the club (1995-2003, 2007-08). He ranks third in franchise history in strikeouts (1,574), fourth in wins and games started (343), and eighth in innings pitched (2212.0). Pettitte also played for the Houston Astros from 2004-06, where he compiled a 37-26 record with a 3.38 ERA.

Twice named an American League All-Star (1996 and 2001), Pettitte owns a 215-127 career record with a 3.89 ERA. He is the Major League leader in wins among active pitchers since his debut in 1995, and trails only the newly retired Greg Maddux (224) and Mike Mussina (218) among all pitchers over the span. Pettitte has posted a winning percentage of .500-or-better and made at least 15 starts in each of his 14 Major League campaigns. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only Cy Young (15 seasons, 1890-1904) and Tom Seaver (15 seasons, 1967-81) started their careers with longer such streaks.

A member of four Yankees World Championship teams (1996, ‘98-2000), Pettitte is 14-9 with a 3.96 ERA in 35 career postseason starts, tying Tom Glavine for the most all-time postseason starts and the second-most all-time postseason wins (behind John Smoltz’s 15). He is also a two-time 20-game winner, notching 21 victories in 1996 and 2003.

UPDATE, 4:33 p.m.: Brian Cashman is on the call now. Pettitte admitted his pride was wounded by the pay cut but said in the end he wanted to play for the Yankees again.

UPDATE, 4:40 p.m.: Cashman said not to expect any more significant moves.

Today would be a good time to again appreciate what Mike Mussina did last year. He decided to retire, had one of the best seasons of his career and followed through with his plans in an understated, dignified manner.

I write that because this latest news involving Joe Torre is another reminder of how rarely it ends well in sports these days.

Bernie Williams has held a grudge against the Yankees for the longest time because they refused to give him a contract he clearly didn’t deserve. Andy Pettitte went back on his words and is fighting for every dime. We have Roger Clemens, once the greatest pitcher of his generation, living in embarrassed seclusion in Texas hoping federal marshals aren’t knocking on his door.

Doesn’t make Old Timers’ Day in 2015 sound especially fun, does it?

Now we have Torre, the man who restored the luster to a faded powerhouse, prostituting himself for the sake of a book and another few million.

When the smoke clears, the supposedly gory details of The Yankee Years will prove not so gory. Book publicists are good at what they do and some reporters are only too glad to take a baited hook. It beats actually doing any work.

But Torre clearly traded some secrets for money. Nobody wanted to read another warm tale about his brother in surgery or Don Zimmer cracking jokes, so Joe and Tom Verducci threw a few players and team executives into the fire. Verducci is an elegant writer and a terrific reporter. The book will be compelling and 100 percent true.

But that’s not really the point. We wanted Bernie Williams Day at the old Stadium. You’d like to see that old warhorse Clemens in Tampa teaching Phil Hughes how to bust somebody inside. And many Yankee fans would weep at the sight of Torre getting his number retired, fat tears running down his face again as Mo, Jorgie, Tino, Paulie and the Captain gather around.

Good luck with seeing that any time soon. They Yankees might as well give No. 6 to Ramiro Pena in spring training. Joe took his long-simmering feuds public, giving his critics ammunition that will last for years. How often do you think Randy Levine has said, “I told you so” today?

This stuff will not impact the 2009 Yankees for a second. If they do care — and most will not — they’ll pretend they don’t. Alex Rodriguez has been called every name in the book in this town. That some teammates also think he’s a fraud will make him laugh. He’ll be collecting $20 million in 2017 while half of those dopes will be begging to do card shows at some Hilton in Jersey.

It just never ends well. Maybe it’s the money that saps them of their dignity. For others it’s the attention or the lifestyle. But our heroes so rarely walk away at the right time. They kick and scream and claw.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking it will change. It could get very ugly when Derek Jeter’s contract expires. Or if Mo decides he want to keep pitching in 2011. You want to be the guy who tells Posada he can’t catch anymore? Wear his mask when you break that news.

Torre is not the best person I ever covered. I had more pleasant one-on-one conversations with Joe Girardi in a month last season than I had with Torre in a year But Torre understood how his job related to my job better than anybody else. Readers benefited from that. Once again, he is showing how well he knows the media landscape. Torre picked a great writer and served up the details that will sell books by the truckload. The convertible he drives around in those commercials couldn’t stay on the high road.

But we never should have expected it would. Mike Mussina is the exception, not the rule. If there is money to be made, it’s their right to try and make it.

Root for the laundry, that’s the best you can do. Just root for the laundry.

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Speaking of money, it looks like Pettitte has agreed to take some from the Yankees. A one-year contract is in the works. More on this as it develops.

Tim Dierkes of Roto Authority polled some writers and bloggers to ask how many innings they thought Joba Chamberlain would pitch in the coming season.

My answer of 160 was between Will Carroll and Ken Rosenthal, which seems like pretty good company.

Though Joba tossed only 100.1 inning in 2008, I think the Yankees will push him a little provided he stays healthy. He’s 23 now, this is will be third season in the majors and he is at a point where he will work as a starter in spring training and then start the season in the rotation.

I have no science to back up what I’m saying, just a sense from talking to people with the Yankees that they don’t plan to baby him.

January is traditionally a slow month for baseball news. So for the second year in a row, we will showcase other blogs with a series of pinch hitters.

Next up is Matt from A Connecticut Yankee.

Matt has been blogging since August of 2008. He is a senior English major at UConn (Go Huskies) and is from Greenwich.

Here’s his post:

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With the Yankees recent splurge on free agents and trades, there are a lot of people talking about who’s overpaid, who’s underpaid, responsible spending, irresponsible spending, and the like. For that reason, I’d like to take a look at the Yankees two acquisitions on the offensive side of things: Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira.

To do this, I’ll be turning their projected runs above average using Marcel’s projections for hitters and their CHONE Defensive Projections.

My method will be the same as found on my friend Mike’s blog Fire Jim Leyland. For an example of how these calculations work, go to this post.

10.5 is roughly the amount of runs that equal one win and the two is used because a replacement player is two runs worse than an average player. To get the dollar amount, you multiply by five million dollars, the approximate value of a win. The positional adjustments Mike talks about are as follows:

Catcher: +12.5 runs
Shortstop: +7.5 runs
Second Base/Third Base/Centerfield: +2.5 runs
Left Field/Right Field: -7.5 runs
First Base: -7.5 runs
DH: -17.5 runs

Let’s run through the numbers for Mr. Swisher first. On the spreadsheet, we can find that he will be worth 5.8 runs over average. If we want to project Swisher as LF/RF, we find his defensive projection on the CHONE site and find that there, Swisher is projected to be a +5 defender. The equation:

5.8 (runs over average) -7.5 (position adjustment) = -1.7+5 (projected defense) = 3.3/10.5 +2 = 2.31 Wins Above Replacement. So, as a corner outfielder, Swisher projects to be worth 2.31 WAR player. Multiply that by five to get the dollar amount Swisher’s 2008 performance projects to be and you get: $11.55 million dollars. A quick trip over to Cot’s MLB Contracts and we find that Swisher will make $5.3 million in 2009. So if Nick Swisher plays to his projection as a corner outfielder, the Yankees are saving $6.25 million on him.

If you want to make Swisher the CF, switch the positional adjustment (+2.5) and the defensive projection (-2) and he comes out at 2.50 WAR, but only because CFs are harder to replace than corner OFs. Still, his dollar value there would be $12.5 mil, a money saver for the Yankees.

Now, we come to the big boy. Mark Teixeira. The Yankees just gave him an eight year, 180 million dollar contract, with an AAV of $22.5 million. That’s going to be hard for Tex to match. Via the spreadsheet, Teixeira will be 28.2 runs over average this year. So:

28.2 – 12.5 = 15.7 + 6 (projected runs at 1B) = 21.7/10.5 + 2 = 4.07 WAR x 5 = 20.35. So, Tex’s value projects to be $20.35 million this year. According to Cots, Mark will make a flat $20 million this year. So, the Yankees will, in fact, be paying Tex .35 million dollars less than he projects to be worth. It’s a small number, but the Yankees are “saving” with Tex.

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Nice job, Matt. I’ve been working at getting a better understanding of these metrics and I’m happy to present this sort of post on my blog. Coming tomorrow: Chris from Pinstripes Published.

Robinson Cano made an appearance in Westchester last night and Josh Thomson has the story.

Cano has worked on his conditioning, improved his stance and is ready for a bounce-back season. He’s also looking forward to playing in the WBC.

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The book Joe Torre wrote with Tom Verducci is about to come out and early reviews are that he had some revelations about the Yankees.

The book reportedly says Brian Cashman did not back Torre after the 2007 season, and that teammates referred to Alex Rodriguez as “A-Fraud.”

If you’re somehow surprised by either of those, you haven’t been paying attention. Cashman went to bat for Torre after the 2006 season and the disastrous Detroit playoff series. In 2007, it was obvious that the Steinbrenners, Randy Levine and others were going to get their way and hire a new manager. Cashman hasn’t been the GM for so long without knowing the terrain. Joe Girardi was available and that was going to be that.

As for Alex, it has been that way all of his career. Teammates in Seattle, Texas and now New York have said that and worse about him.

Read our story today about Robinson Cano. “I’ll trust that when I see it,” he said when asked about Alex actually playing for the Dominican Republic in the WBC.

And Cano is his friend. Alex is a great, great player who’s not especially popular. That’s not really news, is it?

UPDATE, 7:23 p.m.: Verducci said on SI.com that the book is a third-person narrative and is not the rip job some are making it out to be.